Harry Potter and the Last Summer
Three days!!!
Disclaimer: This is getting really repetitive…no, I don't own Harry Potter. Why the hell would I be on the (great) site of if I was richer than the Queen?
Chapter 9: Corrupting Harry Potter
As soon as Harry opened the door to the Burrow he was engulfed in a motherly hug.
"Happy birthday, Harry," Mrs. Weasley exclaimed.
"Thank you, Mrs. Weasley," Harry answered.
"Molly!" Mr. Weasley exclaimed in exasperation, "We could be Death Eaters for all you know! You have to keep asking the questions every time!"
Molly sighed. "Well, you're obviously not a Death Eater or you wouldn't have said that in the first place."
"Death Eaters are conniving people, Molly," Mad-Eye Moody chipped in, "They would do whatever it took to seem normal."
Mrs. Weasley tried to cover her rolling eyes. "Fine then, the official questions. Harry, what form is your Patronus, and why is it that animal?"
"A stag," Harry replied. "It's a stag because my dad could change into one."
"Good, good, good," Mrs. Weasley replied. "Here, come eat! My goodness! You're just skin and bones!"
Before Harry could say anything, she pushed him into a chair and gave him a bowl of warm chicken noodle soup. Harry did his best to concentrate and memorize all the question Mr. Weasley made his wife ask next for future reference. He was pretty confident that he knew what to ask if he really felt paranoid.
"Harry dear," Mrs. Weasley said after the adults joined around the table for some of her delicious soup, "Ron and Hermione have already gone to bed, but you'll be sharing a room with Ron since guests are coming in for the party. I do hope that's okay."
"Of course it is, Mrs. Weasley."
"Of course we'll give you your gifts tomorrow in a celebration."
"Oh, you don't have to, Mrs. Weasley. Just getting away from Privet Drive is good enough for me." Harry said with a faint blush he hid by lowering his head.
"Nonsense!" This time Mr. Weasley spoke, "It's your seventeenth birthday, you're legal! Of course we'll do something. Ron and Hermione were at school during their birthdays so it'll be a combination one."
Harry could think of nothing to do but smile his thanks.
After they all finished their soup and said their goodnights, Harry climbed all the way to the top of the Burrow to Ron's attic room. Ron didn't stop snoring as Harry opened and closed the door and got dressed in pajamas.
—
Harry never had a better birthday. But sadly, that too had to go quickly. Time has a tendency to speed up when you want things to last a long time and to slow down when you want nothing more than for it to be over. Harry decided he just didn't want to summer to end since he didn't want to face the fact that he wouldn't go back to Hogwarts as much as he wanted to. But like an author rushing to her due date, the days plowed on.
It was August 16, two days before Bill and Fleur's wedding. Bill was having a sort of PG-13 version of a bachelor party two days before so he could somewhat relax the next day. It was PG-13-ish because Bill wasn't the type that wanted a stripper or to watch stag films (well, that would make him Muggle anyways); he just wanted to have fun with his brothers and some friends.
So this PG-13 party took place in Ron's room since Fred and George were also sleeping in there for the night and to avoid Mrs. Weasley from hearing anything, though she was sleeping soundly with her husband in the bottom floor bedroom. (You could never be too careful with Mrs. Weasley; she had eyes on the back of her head and a natural version of Extendable Ears.) The twins brought tanks and bottles and packages of fire whiskey and other alcoholic beverages. Harry wasn't going to take one since he was used to not being an "adult", but the twins insisted he took one.
"So when you're seventeen you can also drink legally in the Wizarding world? I'm used to the counting down until you're eighteen in the Muggle world."
"Yep, seventeen makes you legal for everything. Even things you didn't know existed." Fred replied.
Harry decided to at least pretend that they were joking as he didn't want to know what even the twins would've thought was illegal.
He still hesitated to drink the smoky beverage. He never had alcohol before (like his aunt and uncle would let him have a sip of wine!) and wasn't sure if he liked the smell coming off it. He looked up to see Ron taking sips without any screwed up face or anything. He probably had wine or something in his life…
"Whatchya waiting up for, Harry?" Charlie asked.
"I've never had alcohol before…I'm not sure I'll like it."
"Come on, Harry, give it a try!" George laughed, hitting him on the back.
"Yeah, it's my bachelor party and I want to corrupt Harry Potter!" Bill said with a smile.
Harry grinned but burned a bit as all eyes the Weasley boys started at him. "Cheers," he said, raising his glass.
He tilted the goblet and let the liquid seep into his mouth. The liquid burned his mouth but not in a painful way, and then he swallowed and it burned his throat more than five fizzy drinks could. Harry was pretty sure that steam was coming out of his ears and nose as his eyes watered.
All the members of the party looked at him expectantly. "It's…I get the name."
The room chortled at the sight of the savior of the Wizarding world getting weak from fire whiskey. Harry took a few more sips before Fred and George pulled out six identical necklaces. Each one was strung with a leather cord and had a stone; the necklaces themselves seemed to glow. They handed out one necklace to each person in the room while they explained.
"Fred and I have been using these ourselves," George began.
"But we thought we should try them out with influences of alcohol and such." Fred finished.
"They're Truth Amulets," George added.
"But we want to market them as a game and the game we want to try is not fun when you know everything the other has done." Fred said with a grin.
"The game is a Muggle one called, 'I Have Never…' Each person takes turns saying, 'I have never blank,' and the players take a sip of their beverage if they have." George explained.
"So, if you're okay with this Bill, we thought it would be a fun thing to try." Bill nodded his agreement.
"Okay," George said, "first we'll do a few testing rounds."
"Just things we know are true about you," Fred interjected.
"And if they work they should make you tell the truth by taking or not taking a drink."
"So a simple test to start with," Fred thought aloud, "Okay. I have never made out with Fleur Delacour." Bill grinned and took a gulp of his liquor.
"Good, it most likely works." George thought for a moment before saying, "I have never been a prefect." Ron and Bill rolled their eyes as they each took sips.
Harry had to think of something now. "Well…I have never…" I really could say some depressing ones, couldn't I? "I've never had a sibling." He finally said with a wicked smile as all the Weasleys took sips from their bottles.
Ron was next in the circle. "Ummm…I've never defied the law on underage magic." Ron said, shooting a grin at Harry. Harry was not surprised to see Fred and George take sips with him.
Bill stroked an imaginary beard before saying, "I have never lived in a Muggle household." He grinned a wolfish grin as Harry took a sip, "Corrupting Harry Potter is fun! At least your first time drunk won't be with a group of strangers."
Harry smiled as Charlie said, "I have never tried to corrupt Harry Potter." Fred, George, and Bill all took sips while the others laughed.
The circle went through several more cycles. The Weasleys and Harry both had pink patches on their cheeks and were all on different levels from tipsy to full blown drunk. Harry was very much on the far end of the spectrum.
So this is why people get drunk, he thought. All loosey goosey and yeah…what…yeah. This is the perfect sleeping potion…pill…spell…whatever the hell it is.
"I've n-never," Harry said with a slur, "gotten my hair to lay flat." They were running out of good ones…well, to the redheads in the room, good ones were defined as ones that got Harry and Ron drunk. Particularly Harry.
Harry got up to walk to his bed but stumbled after taking a few steps. "Whoa!" He said. Even his brain in that state could recognize that what he said sounded very stupid. The Weasleys giggled with him as he managed to climb into his bed. He was very tired at the moment. He wasn't sure he could stay up much longer until…
"I have never kissed a redhead."
Even in Harry's drunken state he panicked. He was sober enough to understand that he could get in trouble here but wasn't sober enough to do anything. Harry looked side to side to see if anyone else was taking a sip that would distract them. The Truth Amulets turned out to really work so he couldn't stop his arm from tipping the fire whiskey into his mouth. He slowly put down his bottle and spectacles as the Weasleys struggled to stay awake in their own beds they conjured (Attempting to go down the winding staircase while drunk wasn't the best thing to do). Before any of them could make a joke about him and Ron or ask he answered for them.
"Ginny."
Despite the fact that he was afraid that he would get punched within an inch of his life for stepping near Ginny—hell, even the carefree twins were protective of her—he fell asleep.
—
Okay, I'm practically falling asleep at the computer. So R&R…it's 3:07 AM and the book is almost out so I don't know if anyone will read this…but thank you anyways! I think I might write one more chapter, but I'm not sure. I might actually write some more after the book comes out.
Sleep tight!
